Musical Gentrification and Socio-Cultural Diversities

Musical gentrification and socio-cultural diversities. Nowadays, rather than consuming only high culture, members of the middle to upper classes tend to be consuming much of what would have previously been dismissed as low culture. For example, there has been a tendency in the Scandinavian countries from the late 1970s onwards, to expand the repertoires and resources of music as an educational subject, an academic field, as well as an area for support and funding from cultural authorities, organizations and institutions. Herein, many popular music genres have gained considerable educational, curricular and institutional status. In this research project, this has been metaphorically referred to as musical gentrification, which means that music that previously had lower reputation has been covered with new interest among individuals and groups with higher status, but also that music occurs in social and cultural landscapes where something is included and something else is excluded and where someone can achieve social and cultural mobility using music while others do not benefit from this development. The project web site: www.inn.no/MG The project was organized in three interconnected sub-studies: 1. Academization and institutionalization of popular music in Norwegian higher music education. In this sub-study the researchers have examined trends in Norwegian music research, with emphasis on how and why some forms of music have been included and some have been excluded in academia. The research activities included mapping, analysis and categorization of the total corpus of Norwegian dissertations and theses within all music disciplines from 1912 to 2012 - totalling a number of 1695 works - as well as qualitative interviews with the supervisors who have contributed most actively to the academization of popular music. The material show that popular music to a large extent has been successfully academized. A total of 404 dissertations, or 23.8% of the total material, have some kind of popular music connection. However, the results also show that this process has led to some limitations of academic openness as well as the emergence of new power hierarchies. 2. Gentrification of country music culture in Norway - A festival study. This was a PhD project, lasting from 2013 to 2016. The study was designed as an ethnographic analysis focusing on the development of program content and audience composition characteristics at The Norwegian Country Meeting after this festival achieved the status as a Norwegian hub festival within the genre of country music in 2012. The study looks at the effect specific cultural policies and authoritative criteria for artistic quality, innovation, and audience development may have on a popular and commercial cultural event and its nature of expression. The empirical data on which the ethnographic analysis is based have been collected through both qualitative and quantitative methods. These methods include field observations, interviews, surveys, and document/text analysis. The results show that the festival has, to some extent, changed as a consequence of the priorities set in cultural policy. This stood in some contrast to what was interesting and attractive for the festival's traditional core audience. 3. Processes of inclusion and exclusion among musicians of immigrant origin in Norway. This was a two-year postdoctoral study investigating how identity, competence and entrepreneurship were developed among musicians with immigrant origin while developeing their career paths as professional musicians in Norway. The data collection involved interviews with twelve musicians together with their local collaborators, participant observation of relevant events as well as a complimentary ethnographic study of the wider music world in the Oslo area. Applying and further developing the notions of "musicianship", "assemblage", "musical pathways" and "aesthetic cosmopolitan body", the study effectively examined individual unique ways of managing the musical gentrification prevalent in the relevant music world from the "inside". This led to conclude how a pluralistic and reflexive approach is necessary for the hosting side to tackle the complex cultural diversity in ways to truly make use of and distribute the resources that musicians with an immigrant origin bring into a host country. The results from the project are listed here: http://eng.hihm.no/project-sites/musical-gentrification/publication-dissemination-and-communication

This project focuses and examines music's impact on social change and inclusion/exclusion processes, and hence, also, its tendency to exclude some people and groups when others are included, to retain somebody when it helps others' social mobility, and to taboo certain forms of music while others are gentrified. Thus, the importance of musical conditions underlying social change will be emphasized in their diachronic and synchronic aspects, especially regarding the intersecting facets of music as cultural ly diverse, as gendered, as mediated, and as deeply rooted in socio-economic class relations and tensions. To explore these issues, notions of musical gentrification, cultural omnivorousness and diversity will be employed and further developed. The proje ct is organised in three interconnected sub-studies - i.e. in the fields of music education and research, in relation to a music festival, and among musicians of immigrant origin - which are considered to be 'intensity cases' or areas of investigation tha t are rich in information and clearly exhibit the key questions of the project. The project design allows for both within-case as well as cross-case analyses. The expected outcome of the research is to provide relevant knowledge about the aesthetic and c ultural premises for the shaping of society and social development, as well as on how educational strategies and methods may improve and ensure integration and inclusion in society. Thus, it will provide relevant knowledge about crucial challenges facing society today, regarding the impact of music in society, culture, education and life project, to policy makers, the professional fields involved, and different user groups such as researchers, teachers, students, and cultural actors that operate within th is field. On this basis, the research results would have implications on the politics of education, culture and aesthetics, as well as for people's agency in society, education and their personal lives.